The Burnside Gorge neighbourhood was an area of early coastal settlement for First Nations peoples. For thousands of years before the arrival of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations – part of the Coast Salish people – used the shores of the Upper Harbour and the Gorge where they lived in large cedar houses, in extended self-governing family groups. Each household group claimed specific areas for living, hunting, fishing, and plant collection. The Gorge, known as Camossung, is a very significant First Nations site.
A brief history of our city...
The Burnside Gorge neighbourhood was an area of early coastal settlement for First Nations peoples. For thousands of years before the arrival of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations – part of the Coast Salish people – used the shores of the Upper Harbour and the Gorge where they lived in large cedar houses, in extended self-governing family groups. Each household group claimed specific areas for living, hunting, fishing, and plant collection. The Gorge, known as Camossung, is a very significant First Nations site.
1843
In 1843 the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) built Fort Victoria and became the administrative authority on the Coast. HBC was charged by the Colonial Office in London with promoting colonization and land sales. Much of the land, which is now Burnside Gorge neighbourhood, was sold to Company employees and retirees; Roderick Finlayson, John Work, and James Yates all created pioneer farms on vast acreages in the Burnside Gorge area. Initially the only means of access was by water, but once land-transportation routes were established, these holdings were settled as some of Victoria’s first suburbs, beginning in 1861. The City’s wealthy businessmen, politicians, and professionals built grand mansions such as ‘Ashnola’ and ‘The Dingle’. Many of these old mansions have disappeared in the wake of neighbourhood redevelopment, particularly after Gorge Road became the Island Highway, connecting Victoria to the rest of Vancouver Island.
1860
By the 1860s, Douglas Street had been extended northwards and bridges were built at Point Ellice and Rock Bay, as well as across some of the streams draining into the Gorge. With the advent of streetcars, a car barn was built on Pembroke Street. Despite the collapse of the Point Ellice Bridge – caused by overloading and the worst streetcar accident in Canadian history – they continued to be the City’s predominant form of local transit until 1946 when the Garbally bus yard was established on Gorge Road. Other rail lines passed through the area, connecting Victoria with the Saanich peninsula and several ports to the north. The Canadian Northern Pacific Railway constructed the Selkirk Trestle over the Gorge, which allowed logs from Vancouver Island’s forests to be brought to the sawmills in the Upper Harbour.
Over the years industrial activity spread northwards onto reclaimed land between Bridge and Garbally Streets, and in this area small industry still survives while the heavy industry in the Upper Harbour has been significantly reduced. Along with industry came power generation; the Victoria Gas Company, founded in 1860, provided the city’s first generating station, for domestic as well as industrial use. In 1928, the Burnside Gorge neighbourhood became home to the British Columbia Electric Power & Gas Company’s Bay Street Sub-Station.
Burnside Gorge has also contributed greatly in the draw of visitors to the city. The Gorge waterway has been a place of recreation and sport since the early days of the Royal Navy holding regattas in the nearby Esquimalt harbour, frequently accompanied by First Nation canoes. The rise in tourism was reflected in the increase of motels on Gorge Road after it became the Island Highway in 1915. Today, dragon boats, recreational kayaks, and canoes based in Selkirk Village also use the waterway.
(Source: 2017 City of Victoria Burnside Gorge Neighbourhood Plan)
